A week ago, Corbin City Manager Bill Ed Cannon owed over $4,500 in unpaid property taxes to Knox County, but officials confirmed Tuesday that all of that debt, some of it a decade old, has now been paid in full.

The move came after the publication of an investigative report in the News Journal July 27 that revealed Cannon owed roughly $4,561 in back taxes on three separate properties in Knox County: two of them in Cardinal Heights Subdivision, where he resides, and again on an unpaid bill associated with a home on Roy Kidd Ave.

Officials with the Knox County Clerk's Office said this week that Cannon had paid "everything that could be paid" in their office to settle property tax delinquencies shortly after the article appeared.

Cannon's tax problems stretched back more than a couple of years. He owed $981.79 on an outstanding 2002 tax bill on the Roy Kidd Ave. home and an additional $630.74 on the same property for 2001. Both of those outstanding bills have since been paid.

The status of two outstanding bills remain unclear. Tax Ease Lien Servicing, LLC, a company based in Dallas, TX, purchased two of Cannon's 2009 tax bills: one for $681.23 and another for $242.32. Both are currently in collection, which means the company has either filed litigation to force payment or the debtor is in the process of paying off what is owed. Tax Ease has filed one lawsuit against Cannon seeking the sale of property in Cardinal Heights Subdivision to satisfy the tax debt.
Regardless, Cannon owes Knox County nothing since Tax Ease essentially paid the debt.

The company, and others that specialize in collecting unpaid property taxes, will purchase delinquent property tax bills in bulk and then charge lucrative fees that taxpayers must pay in order to avoid foreclosure. Unpaid property tax bills are generally purchased at an annual sale. Knox County's sale of 2010 delinquent tax bills is set for Aug. 26 at 10:00 a.m. in the Clerk's Office. After that, anyone can buy unpaid bills for face value, plus penalties.

Cannon did not return a phone call by press time Tuesday seeking on this story.

He has served as Corbin's City Manager for 12 years and makes $78,000 annually.

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